ASUS to cause mass netbook hysteria next month by including optical drives

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Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children? We all had a good, nervous chuckle when Japan’s Mouse Computer released a netbook with an optical drive but remained calm, knowing that it’d never come to the US. Now it appears, however, that an ASUS Eee with a built-in optical drive will be hitting the market next month.

Asustek Computer is scheduled to launch its new Eee PC, the E1004DN, which will be the first Eee PC to have an optical disc drive (ODD), in mid-April, and will follow with the 1008HA in May, according to sources at retail channels.

The E1004DN is built with an Intel Atom N280 CPU paired with GN40 chipset, a 120GB hard drive, and will carry a suggested retail price of NT$18,000-20,000 (US$531-590).

How are you going to explain netbooks to your children? They’re computers without CD drives, right? No! They’re computers with Atom CPUs, right? Not anymore! They’re notebooks with screens that are 10 inches or smaller, right? Absolutely not!

Even though it’s becoming more and more difficult to differentiate between netbooks and notebooks, talk to your kids about netbooks. They’ll thank your for it. We all will.